JUST IN: The Israeli eviction order from Beirut forces 700,000 people in Lebanon to move | International
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Israel, which since its creation has occupied territories in Lebanon in different wars for decades, applied an unprecedented measure on Thursday in its conflicts against Lebanese and Palestinian groups on Lebanese soil. Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic spokesman, demanded in a statement that residents of Beirut’s suburbs leave their homes immediately “to save their lives.” The demand, a collective punishment on a population without influence over the war decisions of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, affects 700,000 people, half of the inhabitants of the Beirut metropolitan area. After the Israeli army issued eviction orders on specific areas of those municipalities in 2024 and in 2006, when the Israeli army also bombed the suburbs during other wars with the pro-Iran organization, Israel imposes a expulsion with drastic consequences on the ground that frightens the Lebanese due to the Gazan precedent. Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Finance Minister, invoked that memory on Thursday, assuring that the suburbs – which cover a geographical territory larger than the capital – will end up “looking like Khan Yunis”, the volatilized municipality in the Palestinian strip. Israeli tanks stationed near the border with Lebanon, this Friday. Amir Levy (Getty Images) According to Mona Harb, professor of Urban and Policy Studies at the American University of Beirut and co-director of the Beirut Urban Lab, the two months of large-scale offensive that Israel perpetrated on those suburbs in 2024 demonstrated “the intentionality of killing all forms of life.” As in Gaza, the laboratory recorded a high rate of attacks that hit the vicinity of medical centers and schools. “It has been investigated that people flee when the bombings approach these basic infrastructures and the feeling of security disappears,” says Harb, born and raised in Dahiye, which means “suburb” in Arabic and is how the area is known. “The assault lacked discrimination [al atacar] without there being clear military objectives.” Since Monday, the Israeli offensive has included eviction orders in other territories of Lebanon, a country of some five million residents whose diversity and polarization prevents the existence of consensus, also regarding the role it should play in relation to the Palestinian issue, to which Hezbollah alludes to fight against Israel. On Wednesday, in another measure with enormous consequences, the army ordered the vacuum south of the Litani River, affecting the quarter of a million people who They inhabit that 8% of the national territory. On Friday, the troops extended the measure to several municipalities in the Bekaa. More information Spokesmen for the Israeli army have acknowledged that they had the military campaign in Lebanon prepared prior to the attack by the Lebanese group, whose weapons, finances and decisions depend on the Islamic Republic. Since the truce signed in 2024 with this organization, which opened a front on Israel in solidarity with Gaza after the 2023 Hamas attack on Israeli soil. maintained the occupation of several enclaves in southern Lebanon, preventing the return of tens of thousands of residents with fire. It has also bombed residential buildings and public spaces almost daily, causing 397 victims during the cessation, according to the Government of Beirut, which, weakened by that conflict, avoided returning attacks during a 15-month ceasefire, describe the reopening of the front last Monday as inevitable in the absence of international pressure to stop the aggression. Israelis. Displaced people fleeing Israeli bombing in the suburb of Dahiye, in the south of Beirut, light a bonfire to warm themselves on the city’s seafront, this Friday. Hussein Malla (AP) According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, Israel has killed 217 people in the country in five days, in addition to injuring 800. The UN refugee agency records more than 100,000 displaced in more than 400 shelters in Lebanon, while 50,000 Syrians seeking refuge in the small Mediterranean country have hastened their return to Syria. “Save your lives and evacuate your homes” “Urgent notice to the residents of the suburbs of Beirut,” Adraee said on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. local time, coinciding with the start of the tour that Hezbollah had organized for international journalists. in Dahiye. “Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” the statement warned. Despite the fact that the territory is 85 kilometers north of Israel, the note prohibited them from heading south: “Any movement in that direction could endanger your lives.” To further the distress of the inhabitants, who were left undecided by the announcement, the map on which Adraee reflected the order differed from the aforementioned municipalities, making territories that did not even exist. belonging to Dahyie appeared under threat. In both Lebanon and Gaza, the maps with which the Israeli Army intends to mobilize the population are frequently imprecise. Columns of smoke rise after an Israeli air attack in Dahiye, in the southern suburbs of Beirut (Lebanon). WAEL HAMZEH (EFE) The streets collapsed immediately. People in wheelchairs fled tied to scooters that were dragged by security agents; to direct traffic; some neighbors fell into despair under the frightened gaze of the little ones. “A van is wanted to evacuate elderly people who cannot walk,” some messages requested on WhatsApp. The exile was a mirror of the composition of Dahiye, a group of municipalities integrated into the capital, and where the majority of the population is socioeconomically vulnerable and of Shiite denomination – many, arriving from the south after the 2006 war -, despite the fact that there are presence of Syrian, Kurdish or African migrants who find more affordable housing there. Layla, a 29-year-old bookseller, claims that they fled without direction. “People left their house and drove wherever they could, beyond Dahiye,” she explains by text messages. “Then they started contacting shelters,” although most of them are already overcrowded. Kaffa, a 42-year-old Syrian Kurdish mother, spends the cold winter nights outdoors in the center of Beirut. She does it with her sister, her nephews and her two children, aged 10 and 6. The three of them sleep with their arms linked, because she is afraid “that they will leave.” She is from the Syrian city of Qamishli, where she says she cannot return due to the existence of a new government in Damascus, that of Ahmed al Shara, “hostile towards the Kurds.” Kaffa, this Friday, with her children in the center of Beirut.JOAN CABASÉS VEGARoad collapsed during the exodus on Friday after the order to evacuate the suburbs of Beirut.JOAN CABASÉS VEGAMore destruction in Dahie on November 28, 2024, the first day after the signing of the ceasefire.JOAN CABASÉS VEGAA truck loads mats for displaced people in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, in front of the Mohamed Al Amin MosqueJOAN CABASÉS VEGA“In Dahiye there are people [de Hezbolá] “that make war decisions and people that protect them, but it is not a military bastion,” describes Harb, who recalls that the rocket launches towards Israel occur from the south of the country. Despite this, the offensive that Israel carried out for 61 days in 2024, between the beginning of the land occupation and the signing of the truce, caused havoc under the pretext of the fight against points of military interest. Of the 279 bombings that Israel announced – discounting the unannounced—half hit the vicinity of 75% of medical centers, while 90% of those attacks fell in the vicinity of 80% of educational centers, according to a study by Beirut Urban Lab. On Friday, Israel claimed responsibility for “26 waves of bombings” in Dahiye since Monday against “command centers” and buildings “where there were terrorist sites.” “We know what they are capable of,” warns the researcher. “During the truce, never. “They stopped attacking and burning the land in a strip of between 5 and 10 kilometers into Lebanese territory, systematically attacking” those who tried to return. This week, the Israeli government has declared its intention to impose a security zone in that territory, where ground fighting between Israeli soldiers and Lebanese fighters is reported. “We have also seen what they have done in Gaza with total impunity,” adds Harb. “Why wouldn’t they repeat it?” Collapsed building after an Israeli attack in Beirut (Lebanon), this Friday.Stringer (REUTERS)
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.